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Report on Floodlight conversions

Add Floodlight conversions to a report

Once you've set up your Floodlight activities and installed tags on your site, you can report on paid-search conversions by adding Floodlight columns to your reporting tables.

Paid search conversions only

Floodlight columns in DS only report conversions attributed to clicks on paid search ads. To view conversions attributed to display ads, view-through conversions, as well as paid search ads, pull reports from DoubleClick Campaign Manager (only available if your agency or organization uses Campaign Manager, and if your account has been granted access to Campaign Manager).

Standard Floodlight columns

DoubleClick Search (DS) provides several columns such as Actionsand Trans that report conversions recorded by all Floodlight activities on a single device or browser. You can also add columns such as Actions cross-env, to report on cross-environment conversions -- those that start on one device and end on another -- to see a more complete number of Floodlight conversions.

Custom Floodlight columns

You can create a custom Floodlight column to report on a specific Floodlight activity, Floodlight activity group, or any combination of activities and groups. If you're tracking multiple activities on your site, creating a custom Floodlight column makes it easy to pick and choose which Floodlight activities to analyze.

For example, if you sell software on your site, you may want to see which keywords lead to free downloads vs. paid downloads to help optimize keyword landing pages. With custom Floodlight columns, you can add just the two activities to easily compare statistics. If you're just interested in any download, you can create a new column that combines the metric from both activities into one column.

As another example, you select a Floodlight activity named Email sign-up and select the Actions metric. The new column will display the count of email sign-ups. If you select Cost/action instead, you’ll see the cost per email sign-up.

Create a custom Floodlight column

In the Available columns list, click ▸Custom conversions, then click Floodlight.

Click Create a new column.

Name your column and select the Floodlight activities and/or Floodlight activity groups whose data you want to include in the column.

Use the Metric dropdown to select the metric you want to report on.

The type of metric needs to match the type of Floodlight activities you selected. For example, if you select Action Floodlight activities, select the Actions, Cost/action, Action conv % or other action-related metrics. If you select a transaction-related metric, the column will display 0.

Optional. Use the Attribution model dropdown to apply a different model to the data.

If you're using a custom dimension to filter a Floodlight column, the column cannot display cross-environment conversions. If you select both options (that is, if you add a custom dimension filter and select Cross-environment conversions), the column will always display zero conversions.

Click Save.
DS automatically adds the new column to the Selected columns list.

Click Apply.
The new column appears in your reporting table.

Additional options

If you add or create custom Floodlight columns, you can do the following, just as you can with other columns:

Use Floodlight columns in automated rules to trigger changes in specific campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords, or product targets when the data in the Floodlight column matches criteria you specify.

Segment reports by Floodlight activity instead of creating custom columns. You can use the Segment option to see detailed reporting on individual Floodlight activity groups and activities. This allows you to see performance data on the different types of conversions that a set of keywords or ads can produce.

Notes and known issues for custom Floodlight columns

Advertiser-level columns: Custom Floodlight columns don't appear at the agency level, but they do appear at the advertiser, campaign, ad group, ad, or keyword level.

Can't be used in a filter: Custom Floodlight columns don't appear in the list of available filters.

Floodlight activity groups: When you create a custom column, selecting a Floodlight activity group adds all of the Floodlight activities that are currently in the group. If you later add a new Floodlight activity under the Floodlight activity group, the column will not automatically include data for that activity.

Activities excluded by Floodlight instructions: When you create a custom column, you see all Floodlight activities within the advertiser, even those that are excluded from reporting in DS by a Floodlight instruction. If you create a Floodlight column for an excluded Floodlight activity, the column will always display 0, since the Floodlight instruction prevents DS from reporting on the activity.